Army Wife in Training, this is not only for you, but for anyone who is pondering homeschooling.
A little background though. While stationed in North Carolina we became friends with a couple of different people who homeschooled. They loved it and constantly raved about homeschooling being on their schedule, getting to take long vacations, and traveling when it was best for their husbands (both active duty Marines) other than when it was best for the schools. So we began to study homeschool and read everything we could get out hands on. When we moved to Florida, we put Caroline is a preschool and prepared her for her first year of Kindergarten at the local elementary school. Then over the next 2 years she changed schools 3 times. Bless her heart, she handles it so well.
Our last school was a challenge for our whole family. It was a school that had a lot of disciplinarian problems. I felt school time was leaning away from learning. So we waited until the year ended and made the final decision to homeschool her for the next few years. I don't say forever because we never know what the future holds.
Advantages to homeschooling.
- My relationship with C has gotten better. I used to get her at the end of the day when she was tired and grumpy and snappy!
- If Daddy is home then we can focus our attention on spending time with him.
- Our kids can learn what we want them to learn and avoid learning some scary things. Have you heard what kids say on the playground these days. Eye Opening!
- Since we are military, we can take extended stay vacations to visit family. This works well when hubby is on deployment. I can't move home during deployments, I need my own space and rules.
Disadvantages to homeschooling.
- You are never alone. That takes an adjustment and/or a good babysitter. My goal is to find a sitter when we move so that I can get a few hours once a week to myself.
- Bad days for one person usually result in bad days for everyone. That also includes when Mom is sick. There is no getting the kids to school and then going back to bed. There is school in bed though and that is fun!
- There will always be somebody who doubts you or thinks you are crazy or both. As long as it is not you then don't worry about it.
- There will be rally crappy days. Get over it and move on, everyone has them.
I hope that you can see that I really do enjoy homeschooling my kids. There is so much you can do. If your kids have an interest, then I will suggest that you follow that interest. Let them learn as much as they can.
Here is a new website for the younger kids. It is full of fun learning ideas for the tots in your home. Totally Tots, go check them out.
Lastly, military families that homeschool, think of homeschooling, no someone who homeschool. Give us your ideas. Why do you love homeschooling, why wouldn't you homeschool, what scares about making the decision to homeschool. Let us know.
PS, Army Wife in Training. I could not get to your website. Send me a link.
1 comment:
This is an old post I know but it intrigued me. I am a teacher and a relatively new Army Wife without any children (unless you count my husband on occasion). I have thought about the idea of homeschooling our future children at least while they are young. Most people automatically think that home schooled children are sheltered or have socialization problems. That might have been true for some but clearly not all. There are so many activities or sports that children can join to get the socialization that they need. I am a teacher and I will honestly say that a decent chunk of the day is simply designated to behavior management or getting from one place to the next. In low SES areas it is easy to see how the learning is limited. I know that if we live on or are at a typical post (he is ACRC right now) that I could work on post and therefor my children would have to go to school on post or public schools if we deem fit. There is also a stigma of people who home school being religious or overly religious. I don;t think that is the case as much anymore. I do not consider myself very religious but I would just like the my children to have the best education available whether from me or a great school. Overall I think that I need to do more reading on the topic to find out whats right for us after we have children. Great post. I love that your honest in it.
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